Lagrima played on my 3rd handmade classical guitar
Video of me trying to play Francesca Tarrega’s otherwise popular piece on my handmade classical guitar #3
Category Archives: Guitar making
Workshop, jigs and making process
Guitar #4 completed
My latest guitar was a bit of an experiment but has turned out rather well.
Slightly smaller body volume than earlier guitars and with a side port and dropped table on the treble side to make it easier to reach upper fingerboard. Also used the more traditional 650mm scale length.
Sound is very liquid and sweet with good sustain and the side port makes it easier for the player to hear.
You can see the dropped table here:
And the side port here:
Guitar #3 now finished
Guitar #3 now being polished
Guitar Workshop Inventory
These are the things I would find it hard to do without in my workshop.
Power tools
- Bandsaw
- Drum sander
- Vertical oscillating sander
- Pillar drill
- Lathe – doubles as sander (with shaped discs) and mop polisher
- Laminate trimmer with top and bottom bearing laminate cutters and very small (1/2/3mm) cutters. Circle cutting jig with vernier adjustment
- Palm sander
Hand tools
- F-clamps – 6 off
- Wooden klampsia clamps (lots)
- Deep throat F clamp
- Deep throat clamps – for gluing bridge
- Metal vice
- Drill vice
- Flexible jaws vice (home-made)
- Set of flat chisels – 1/2″ down to 1/8″
- Skew chisels –
- Scrapers
- Shoulder plane
- Small palm plane
- Flexible sole plane – for cutting the concave jigs for back and top
- Set of small rat-tail files
- Set of nut files
- Half round file
- Flat file with flat edge
- Japanese half round rasp
- Japanese marking knife
- Set of rulers (6″, 12″, 24″, 36″)
- Square
- Digital vernier (imperial & metric)
- Screw lock bevel
- Japanese dozuki saw
- Fret cutting saw
- Sanding disc – 15′ concave for preparing bottom of sides for back
- Sanding block – 25′ convex for doing underside of bridge
Jigs
- Bench hook
- Shooting boards
- Side moulds and base building jig
- Back building board
- Lining laminate gluing jig
- Side bending jig
- Fingerboard fret marking jig
- Fingerboard fret cutting jig
- Top/bottom template
- Head template
- Fingerboard template
- Bridge positioning template
- 15′ and 25′ radius sticks
Consumables
- Double sided tape
- Wide blue masking tape
- Titebond yellow glue
- White PVA glue
- Shellac flakes & thinners
- Pumice
- Cotton waste and linen sheets
- Sandpaper 180-400
- Emery paper 600-2000
- Polishing compound
- China graph pencils
- Carpenters pencils
Guitar #3 before finishing
Finished Classical Guitar #2
Guitar Workshop & Jigs
Tools & Jigs in My Guitar Workshop
This workshop was setup in my garage – which has never seen a car!
